Friendship, Fire, and Fleming
by Tabby Kitten
Summary: Harry, Ron, and Neville bumble though their first auror mission.


"Potter, Weasley. You ready for your first day in the field?" Robards handed them each a slip of parchment. "Your assignment is here. You're due to head out in half an hour."

"Thanks, Robards." Said Ron.

"Heard anything from Hermione lately?" Harry asked as he laced up his boots.

"Yeah, got a letter from her last night. She's been busy. Trying to do twelve NEWTS and campaigning for massive institutional change within Hogwarts at the same time. I dunno how she does it."

Harry laughed. "Sounds just like her. Ginny told me she's helping Hermione campaign for more resources for muggleborns and she's attempting to hold quidditch trials at the same time."

"You know you and I are coming to that first match of the season." Said Ron. "I can't believe my baby sister's quidditch captain. I wonder how trials are going."

"About as well as you'd expect. Loads of hapless first-years, kids who've never flown a broom before, fan girls, the like. She told me she's getting frustrated having to weed through so many bad players."

"Hey guys, are you ready to go?" Neville peered around the doorway. "I'm set to go track down someone called Fleming. Former death eater."

"Wait, are we on the same mission?" Ron checked his slip of parchment. "We are! Sweet! It's gonna be the squad."

"This isn't the squad, Ron, it's a mission to take down a former death eater." Said Neville.

"Harry died and came back, you took down Voldy's snake, Hermione and I ripped fangs out of a basilisk's corpse. This'll be a piece of cake."

"C'mon guys, let's go." Said Harry. "Don't want to be late or Robards'll kill us."

The three friends grabbed their wands and left their shared cubicle. Despite Neville's sub-par NEWT grades and Harry's and Ron's complete lack thereof, Kingsley had let them all into the auror department no questions asked. Training had begun, and now Robards, head of the department, felt that Harry, Ron, and Neville were ready for their first field mission.

"You ready, boys?" Robards called to them. "Excellent. Here's the location of where Fleming was last seen. Do your best to find him and bring him in."

Neville took the slip of paper and read the location. "Do you guys want to apparate? I can take you both." Harry and Ron took Neville's armed and they disappeared. A moment later they reappeared in the middle of some god-forsaken marsh, sweltering in the September heat.

"What now?" Said Ron, squinting in the bright light. He looked down at the mud they were all standing in. "Merlin's beard this is disgusting."

"The town's that way." Said Harry. "Let's look around there. Is it wizard or muggle, Neville?"

"I believe it's mostly muggle, and those who are wizard keep to themselves." Said Neville. "I'm not sure though. Let's look."

They squelched through the muddy bog towards the town. The bog reminded Harry very much of the rushes outside the Burrow where he and Hagrid had crashed Sirius' motorbike over a year ago now. He didn't have a lot of good memories associated with the rushes outside the burrow. With any luck, today would be different.

As they went on the bog began to dry up, replaced by rows of dusty fields. The grass was long and some kind of burr kept catching on their pant legs. There was no source of shade anywhere, just the merciless sun beating down and the uneven ground.

"Look for anything that might be wizard." Said Neville as they approached the first row of houses.

"Purebloods are notoriously bad at trying to look muggle." Said Ron. "But these guys would've lived side-by-side with muggles for who knows how long, so they've probably concealed themselves pretty well."

"There!" Said Harry. They turned and saw a broom leaning against the doorway of a faded blue cottage. This was no ordinary broom, however. The handle was polished to a high sheen, it had telltale footholds, and the twigs were neatly clipped. In fact, Harry was pretty sure it was a Nimbus 2000. Neville caught Harry's eye and he nodded. They went up the walk and knocked on the front door.

"Hello?" A petite woman opened it. "What do you want?" She turned pale when she saw who was standing at her door.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am." Said Neville. "We're looking for any information related to the whereabouts of Octavius Fleming, seeing as he was last seen in this area. Any information you have would be much appreciated."

The woman threw a frantic look over her shoulder as something heavy crashed to the floor behind her. She drew her wand and pointed it at Neville's chin.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Said Ron. "Harry here just took down the dark lord. It's three to one."

"Impedimenta!" She fired off a curse at Harry and ran deeper into the house, Neville and Ron at her heels. "Stupefy! Expeliarmus!" Both spells missed. "Octavius, go! I'll hold them off!"

"No you won't!" Ron shouted. "Flipendo!"

The woman was thrown back over the kitchen table; Neville flicked his wand and heavy ropes bound her in place. "We'll deal with you later. Where's Harry?"

"Right here. Which way did Fleming go?"

"That way, out through the back door."

They pounded out the back and followed the footprints in the soft earth as well as the trampled plants around to the front of the house. The broomstick by the door was gone.

"Bollocks." Ron muttered. "What now?"

"That way." Said Neville. "He's heading to the other side of town!" Sure enough, Fleming was very visible in the clear sky, speeding toward the opposite end of the town. They looked at each other and began sprinting after him.

"If only I had my Firebolt!" Harry moaned. "A Firebolt can outrace a Nimbus 2000 any day!"

"You and your quidditch obsession." Neville grunted. "We'll have to think of something else."

"Harry," Ron panted, "Do you remember that troll from first year? I've got a idea. It's either quite brilliant or quite stupid. You can run faster than me. Try to get as close to Fleming as you can."

"Ron, what are you—"

"Just do it!" Ron watched as Harry ran forward, then took a deep breath and lifted his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He watched as Harry rose up in the air, closer and closer to Fleming's broom. "That's it! Come on, come on . . ." He cast another nonverbal spell to bring Harry closer to Fleming's broom. Harry took the end of it and tried to wrestle Fleming off of it, and then they both slipped off the end and plummeted toward the ground.

"What the heck was that?" Neville shouted as he cast a quick cushioning charm.

Ron shrugged. "Wingardium Leviosa worked on a mountain troll. Surely it can work on death eaters too."

They both ran to Harry and Fleming to find them wrestling, muggle-style. Unfortunately, Fleming was a lot bigger than Harry and quickly pinned him down, then ran off into the forest.

"He's heading for the woods." Harry wheezed. Ron and Neville ran after him, Harry following as soon as he caught his breath. They all began firing off hexes and jinxes as they ran, but a moving target turned out to be much harder to hit than they'd anticipated. Harry now realized why he, Ron, and Hermione had been able to outrun the snatchers at least for a little while.

"Difindo!" A jet of light from Neville's wand split open a downed tree that Fleming had climbed over. They ran through the gap and continued after him.

"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!" Harry bellowed. He roared in frustration as they all missed, the stunning spell hitting a perfectly innocent tree. He had an idea. Maybe he couldn't stop Fleming, but a distraction could slow him down enough to give them time to catch up. "Incendio!" A jet of flames burst from his wand, reaching just far enough to lick the back of Fleming's jacket. Fleming shrieked in surprise and pain and rolled to the ground to quench the flames. The roll cost him valuable time, giving Ron just enough of an edge to chase him down and put him in a full body bind.

"Petrificus Totalus! Nice. You've been stopped, wizard nazi!"

"Wizard nazi?" Asked Neville.

"Nazis were a really bad lot of muggles." Said Harry. "Hermione told Ron about them and now he's decided death eaters are the wizarding equivalent. He's not wrong."

"Look at him." Ron poked Fleming with his toe. "Full body-bind never fails. You reckon we take him in now?"

"I think that's it." Said Harry. "Just pick him up and take him back, I mean, it's not like he can get away."

"Wait, we have to say something to him." Said Neville. "I think I have the script somewhere." He took a slip of paper from his pocket. "Insert name here, you are charged with . . . oh, no. Octavius Fleming, you are hereby charged with collusion with dark forces. You will be brought to the ministry for further questioning. Do you understand?"

Fleming rolled his eyes.

"Well, I think that about covers it." Said Harry.

"Wow. Well, first mission accomplished!" Ron cheered.

"Um, guys." Neville was looking behind them. "Mission not accomplished. You set half the bloody forest on fire, Harry!"

"Harry, mate, it's the dry season!" Ron wailed as he took in the forest fire behind them. "What were you thinking?"

"I—I wasn't—"

"That much is obvious." Said Ron. "Everyone knows that wildfire danger is high this time of year! Ugh, how is it possible that someone as intelligent as you can be so unfathomably dense?"

"They never taught us ecology at Hogwarts!" Harry yelled defensively.

"If you'd paid attention in Herbology you'd know a thing or two about plants and fire!" Neville shouted over the roar of the flames as he blasted the trees with water. "Get in here and help or this'll spread to the town!"

Harry and Ron lifted their wands and cast the auguamenti spell to put out the fire. What might have been daunting for three muggles was quick work for three wizards, and soon there was nothing left but ashes and soggy ground.

"So many innocent plants were destroyed." Neville moaned. "Oh, this poor forest!"

"I'm sorry!" Harry said again. "I—I guess I didn't think about that. Ron used Wingardium Leviosa which got me thinking about first year and the time Hermione set Snape on fire. I guess I had fire on the brain."

"The occasional forest fire can actually help clear out the forest a little bit." Said Neville. "So as long we've put out the blaze completely it should be fine."

"Good." Said Ron. "I am beat. Let's head back." He picked up Fleming and hefted him under his arm like a plank. "You guys wanna stop at Fortescue's after work?"

"Good plan." Said Neville. The other two took his arm and he apparated back to the ministry. They took Fleming and stuffed him into the nearest lift to take him down to a holding cell.

Percy strode into the lift a second after them, then did a double take as he took in their dust-covered, singed, soaking wet state and the death eater tucked under Ron's arm.

"Don't ask." Ron snarled.

"Let me get this straight." Said Robards, after they'd made their way back to the auror office. "You used wingardium leviosa to levitate Potter onto Fleming's broom, and then they wrestled muggle-style after both falling off. After Fleming retreated into the forest, Potter used incendio to slow Fleming down, setting half the forest on fire in the process."

"That just about covers it." Ron muttered.

"Robards sighed, pinching the brideg of his nose. "Certainly unorthodox. However, you brought Fleming in and that's what important. You three are technically the most inexperienced in our department, but you've all got excellent qualifications so I'll be giving you more missions this week. Just try not to set anything on fire next time."

"Merlin, wait 'til Hermione hears about this." Said Harry. "She'll probably tell us about the perfect spell she would've used to stop Fleming."

"You know, I'm starting to think choosing a job without Hermione was a big mistake." Said Ron. "Come on, Fortescue's closes at seven. Let's go."

**A/N: Summary: Harry, Ron, and Neville bumble their way through their first auror mission**

**House: Hufflepuff**

**Year 5**

**Standard**

**Words: 2,147**

**Speech: "How is it possible that someone as intelligent as (you/name) can be so unfathomably dense?" **

**Class subject: Transfiguration **


End file.
